Parable Performance

 I really enjoyed watching Toshi Reagon's adaptation of Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I thought they did a really amazing job producing and performing a complicated, thematically heavy, action-packed book. There are so many nuances within a story like the Parable of the Sower, that it really made me reflect on the difficult choices that performers / playwrights have to make when choosing how to best portray the work accurately while making it relevant to the current audience, entertaining and accessible to viewers, and fitting within the limitations of set, timing, audience attention spans, and scale of production both with regard to human resources and financial resources. And then to make it an Opera on top of all that, I was thoroughly impressed. 

I also really enjoyed that the Opera brought its audience through the turmoil and distress of the characters in a more lighthearted way than the book. Though there is no way to sugarcoat a book like Parable, Toshi was witty and sarcastic, employing irony and well-timed jokes within her songs that helped the audience grapple with Butler's terrifying reality without immediately rejecting or reacting negatively to it in shock. The book was graphic, violent, and hard to sit with -- as we discussed in class, many of us had to take breaks while reading it. I, too, found it hard to read at times, and would even read a second book before bed to get out of the headspace Butler constructed for her readers. This works well for some people, and certainly would provide the shock factor that could catalyze readers to seek change. However, from my own experience as an audience of the book and Opera, I really appreciated that Toshi chose a distinct route to get the same messages across. Though the Opera did not match the grim, often morbid, sobering depiction of Lauren Olanina's America found in the book, it was able to broach the same difficult topics without a visceral reaction associated with them. 

I loved the catchy songs, "don't let your baby go to Olivar" for example, that packed in so much messaging true to the book while weaving in current events. Toshi masterfully connected parallels between the 2024 of Butler's fiction and the 2023 that we are living in today, in an eye-opening yet still palatable way -- reinforcing the connections through song. For example, I hadn't thought about the innate commentary on immigration that Butler makes with this book before that song. I am certain that one is still stuck in audience member's heads weeks later. Similarly, I liked the way that they used the Earthseed poetry (scripture?) as lyrics for the songs, which were also made so much more memorable. The Earthseed poems functioned particularly well for the more abstract dance numbers, and the song's choruses were almost like chanting, perhaps reminiscent of a sermon. It is interesting to consider how much singing happens at church in organized religions, and I wonder if this parallel was Toshi's intention.

I appreciated the minimal set-up of the stage, with the protagonists on benches in a circle for the first act, and walking in circles in the second act. The first act set-up reminded me of a sharing circle or being around a campfire, really emphasized the collective. In the second act, the scrambling and constant walking was a great way to showcase the movement and chaos felt in the second half of the book while the characters had to walk day in and day out to move North and escape the situation in Southern California. I thought this emphasis on circles speaks to the cyclical history Butler urges audiences to avoid with her book, and how repeating the same mistakes only perpetuates a downward spiral. It's also interesting to think about circles and that saying "what goes around comes around." Lauren can't hurt others without it hurting her back. For my essay I may focus on the role of hyperempathy, the song about sharing really resonated with me in the second act of the Opera. 

Lastly, I'll share a little about the last Opera I went to, which was a new adaptation of the Spanish story of Don Juan Tenorio, which was originally from a play called El Burlador de Sevilla written by Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina. I was lucky enough to see this Opera while visiting Spain this fall, having read the play in great detail in my previous Spanish classes. The experience of watching an Opera based on a book / play that you have read carefully is so much more enjoyable (in my opinion) than if you had not read it! El Burlador is about a man who essentially makes a game out of taking the virginity of women during a time when that "ruined their honor" - it is a super famous story in the Spanish lit world, and I would certainly recommend for all play readers.